Back when German mobile developer Elkware was independent, it hooked up with adventure games specialist The House of Tales to produce The X-Files: The Deserter--a pretty reasonable first-person adventure game that managed to retain some of the TV show's flavor. Now that Elkware is part of a much larger publisher, Infospace Mobile, it has apparently decided to drop its partnership with The House of Tales and turn the next game in the series into an action-puzzler. In the case of The Lion's Den, it was a mistake to abandon the somewhat unique adventure format for this bland puzzle game, which might as well not carry the X-Files brand at all.

Who cares about Fox and Dana? Chase is the hot new star here.

First of all, you don't get to play as Mulder, Scully, or even Doggett in The X-Files: The Lion's Den. Instead, you're some schlub named Chase Walker, an ex-security guard who was recently fired from his job at a shady biotech firm called GeneLoft. It just so happens that a spate of strange deaths--including Chase's wife--have been linked to one of GeneLoft's experimental studies, so Mulder and Scully have retained your services to infiltrate the building and dig up some evidence for their case. That's basically the extent of their involvement, since, as their errand boy, you only communicate with them via the occasional e-mail. These missives pop up on your PDA, which also serves as a handy tool for decoding classified GeneLoft e-mails and advancing the plot.

Clearly, these GeneLoft guys learned nothing from the WorldCom and Enron scandals, because the efficacy of their corporate security is about the same as a couple of fat Rent-a-Cops in a golf cart. Thanks to the FBI's expertise, all of GeneLoft's dirty laundry is readily accessible via the numerous computer terminals scattered around each floor, so you can read about its fast-and-loose ethical standards in lurid detail. Essentially, the mystery is solved about 15 minutes into the game, but you still have to perform several hours of action-puzzler tasks to get the necessary evidence together. This involves all of the typically laborious clichés: collecting key cards, dodging extremely stupid guards, and solving an easy puzzle every once in a while by switching security lasers around. The action portion of the game is pointless. For instance, Chase can move at stealth, normal, or fast speeds, but the guards are so easy to deal with that you'll never need to use stealth. You can outrun them or get them stuck on a wall without any trouble; plus, if worst comes to worst, you have a stun gun that they'll walk right into. On lower- to mid-range phones like Cingular's Motorola V551, the action sequences also suffer from a great deal of lag, which makes them even less fun.

This game is Boring with a capital B.

Unfortunately, that's actually the least serious performance problem you'll encounter in this version of The X-Files: The Lion's Den. The game's loading times are ludicrous on this handset, averaging about eight seconds between screens, and your PDA seems to be running on vacuum tubes, too. It's quite possible that the game performs better on high-end handsets, but those with older or less-expensive phones should beware.

The game doesn't get any help from its presentation, either. It's not particularly offensive, but it's also generic, to the point of being indistinguishable from any other isometric action-puzzle game from the last two years. GeneLoft is decorated in such a sickly, depressing, institutional shade of white that it's not surprising the company's on the verge of failure. There are a few sound effects interspersed throughout the game to good effect, but the title music has nothing to do with the famous X-Files theme.

The X-Files: The Lion's Den fails to capture your interest past the first few screens and is therefore a waste of time and money. There are many better, more colorful options for action-puzzlers on mobile, and you should play them instead.